Jump to Section:

Our Verdict

For

Against

Another week brings with it another motherboard toting Lucid's HydraLogix 200 (nee Hydra 200) mix-and-match graphics technology. This time, however, it comes not from MSI, but from archrivals Asus.

It's taken Asus a while to launch a board based on the technology, but one's now a reality in the form of the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme.

The Crosshair IV Extreme is the latest addition to the AMD branch of Asus's RoG (Republic of Gamers) family and – just like the rest of the RoG motherboard lineup – has all the bells and whistles you expect from a top-end Asus motherboard. Like its brethren, it also comes in a box that's pretty much crammed with hardware.

It's worth noting that the Crosshair IV Extreme is the new flagship of the Crosshair range and hence is aimed at the higher end of the market, carrying a price tag to match.

The last high-end board to carry Lucid's technology, MSI's Big Bang Fuzion, was also the first mainstream board to use it. Ultimately, it suffered from a combination of a high price tag and early-to-market technology.

Asus, by allowing the technology to mature a little and putting it on a RoG board, are hoping they can entice high-end users back to give the technology another try.